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Call several local funeral homes to find out who does makeup and what their credentials are.
Deceaseds' hair at several of our funeral homes is done by local hairdressers who started as shampoo girls and learned how to do hair by working with other hairdressers and with customers, plus they had a knack for and interest in doing hair in the first place. The same is true for makeup.
I am guessing that, if you are good at doing makeup (or hair), that would be at least some of the credentials you need to do it for the deceased. I would imagine a funeral home director would look at YOUR makeup first and would offer suggestions for doing makeup for the deceased -- not garish, not clown-like, just natural. There might be bruises to cover or even incision lines had there been an autopsy.
The funeral home director might take you into the back room just to see if you can handle the smells and sights, would show you a body that just came in and would ask you how you would make the person more presentable. Embalming changes the appearance and texture and quality of the skin, so those things would have to be taken into account. Of course, deceased men would need to be "made up" too, don't forget.
Community colleges and mortuary colleges may have courses on doing makeup. Also, call/visit your local public library for information about such courses.
And, like I said earlier, call a couple of funeral homes.
Hey, why do you need to go to school for that for? If you mess up on the make-up who cares? They're dead, they can't tell you anything or get mad at you.
Our local funeral homes, use local hair dressers. Normally the actual undertaker does the body color, since the person is dead, they do the skin color making them look "normal"
I have been looking into this also, and what I have found is that usually the funeral directors/embalmers do the makeup. In some states you actually have to be a licensed funeral director/embalmer to do anything on the body. Having said this, I do know that some funeral homes will have outsiders come in to do the makeup, hair, and nails. You just have to be good, not necessarily licensed. In the state of Ohio, to be a funeral director/embalmer you have to have a bachelor's degree in mortuary science and go through mortuary school, which, I believe, is 2 years. Other states only require the mortuary school. All embalmers are funeral directors, all funeral directors are not necessarily embalmers. Do some research on the schools and your state mortuary science board to see what they require. If you decide that you just want to do makeup, call the funeral homes and see if they hire outside freelancers. I am sending resumes out. I know that in my city there is someone who has made a very good living doing freelance makeup for a number of funeral homes. She picks and chooses what she wants to do. Good luck and keep digging! (sorry about the lenghty answer!!!)
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